Ten finalists have been chosen for the $15,000 Kairos Prize for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays by First-Time and Beginning Screenwriters. Five finalists have been chosen for the $15,000 Kairos Pro Prize for Inspiring Screenplays by Established Filmmakers.

Dr. Baehr will announce the winners Friday, Feb. 2 at Movieguide®’s 26th Annual Faith & Values Awards and Report to the Entertainment Industry, to be held at the Universal Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.

Sponsored by The Timothy Plan, the prizes will be given to the best screenplays that “greatly increase man’s love and understanding of God.”

This year’s Kairos Prize competition had a diverse crowd of entrants, from seasoned directors and former studio heads of major studios to men and women who have never written a movie script before this.

“We had hundreds of submissions from beginning screenwriters from more than 20 countries around the world,” Dr. Baehr said.

This year’s finalists are (in alphabetical order):

Kairos Prize for Beginning Screenwriters

Angels and Attorneys by Lisa London

Logline: On the brink of death, a dishonest lawyer must rectify a shady business deal and his estrangement from God and family while butting heads with an angel who doesn’t like him.

Bodey’s Bible by Ernestina Juarez

Logline: An American slave joins Mexico’s struggle for independence after the leader of that struggle helps Bodey understand the meaning of Jesus’s teaching to “resist not evil.”

Christmas Forever Home by Jody Thompson

Logline: A last-chance foster child and an abandoned military dog must outwit a notorious pet thief, or give up hope of being adopted together, into a loving forever home.

FISH by Richard Grahn

Logline: A Father wants to rekindle his relationship with his son after being absent from his life for ten years, tries to bond through the sport of high school wrestling

Hammering it Home by Lesley Ann McDaniel

Logline: A flirtatious barista fakes her religious convictions to attract the leader of a Christian affordable housing ministry. Now she must win his heart before he realizes she’s not really a believer.

The Methuselah Project by Rick Barry

Logline: In World War 2, a captured American pilot resolves to escape the Germans who use him as a guinea pig in a secret experiment.

No Room at the Inn by Mark Drinnenberg

Logline: A thoughtless, arrogant, and self-absorbed company president learns humility when he is forced to spend Christmas Eve night in a barn.

North Star by William Gebby (WINNER)

Logline: An emotionally cold Quakeress learns to love after she rescues an eight year-old runaway slave.

The Piano Gospel by Tony Gonzalez

Logline: When a town’s wealthy magnate dies, he instructs his heir to have a piano repaired by the man he most wronged in life.

Skirting the Naughty List by Christopher Paige

Logline: The Naughty need a good lawyer. (The Nice can lie for themselves.)

Kairos Pro Prize for Established Screenwriters

Appointments with Heaven by Brian Baugh

Logline: A true story of a country doctor, his struggles with faith and doubt, and his amazing healing encounters with the hereafter.

Good Again by Jeanne Dukes

Logline: When a Texas high school star quarterback fails his team as his successful father struggles with a failing marriage, they fight discouragement by making a pact to overcome the improbable od

The Inheritance by Alexandra Boylan

Logline: Kasey a washed up rock star, returns home, along with her estranged siblings, to bury her mother and claim her inheritance, only to discover that the deed to the entire estate is hidden on the property and the first one to find it…. inherits everything. As Kasey races her siblings, the winner takes all event serves as an ultimate illustration that the only true inheritance is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Switched by Alexandra Boylan (WINNER)

Logline: Tired of turning the other cheek, Cassandra prays that her nemesis, the Queen Bee of social media would know what it’s like to walk a day in her shoes. Her prayer is answered in an unexpected way when they switch identities.

Trapped by George Escobar co-written by Ken Carpenter

Logline: The true story of Anita Dittman, a Jewish-Christian teenager who escapes twice from Nazi prison camps in her unrelenting drive to reunite with her mother at Theresienstadt, a fortress death camp hundreds of miles away in Czechoslovakia.

Since 2006, the Kairos Prizes have championed the brightest new voices emerging from the world of screenwriting. In 2017, two Kairos Prize finalists from past competitions were released nationwide in theaters. Sony Pictures released the $2 million budget faith-based movie “All Saints” on Aug. 25, which made more than $5.9 million worldwide, with an enviable screen average of $6,858 in the United States and Canada. The movie MULLY was released through Fathom and grossed more than $1.4 million.

Several other Kairos Prize finalists and winners are in various stages of development.

Author of “How To Succeed in Hollywood (Without Losing Your Soul)” and “The Culture-Wise Family,” Dr. Baehr is chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission® (CFTVC) and its family guide to movies and entertainment, Movieguide® (www.movieguide.org). CFTVC and Movieguide® are an international, non-profit ministry dedicated to “redeeming the values of the entertainment industry by influencing industry executives and by informing and equipping the public about the influence of the entertainment media.”

At the Faith & Values Awards, Dr. Baehr will present highlights from Movieguide®’s 2018 Report to the Entertainment Industry, a comprehensive financial analysis of the movie business showing what kinds of movies and what kinds of movie content moviegoers favor the most with their hard-earned dollars.

Every year, Dr. Baehr teaches three to five intense four-day filmmaking workshops, which include training in successful screenwriting, in the Los Angeles and Atlanta areas.

For more information about Movieguide® or CFTVC, visit www.movieguide.org or call 1-888-248-6689.